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Airborne 12.09.16

At the US Navy's
insistence, the FAA on Thursday formally proposed turning
the DoD TFR over the Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia into
prohibited airspace.

"This is a general aviation pilot's worst nightmare and has
questionable security benefits," said AOPA President Phil Boyer.
"The Pentagon is dictating national airspace policy. And it could
get worse. AOPA has learned that the DoD has already submitted
requests to turn the remaining permanent TFRs into prohibited
areas."

The existing TFR has severely impacted operations at St. Marys
Airport (4J6) in nearby St. Marys, Ga. Originally, the TFR covered
the airport, prohibiting all operations. The size of the TFR was
subsequently reduced so that operations could resume, but the
location of the TFR caused cancellation of the only instrument
approach procedure into the airport.

The proposed prohibited area will have a 2 n.m. radius up to but
not including 3,000' MSL, centered on 30-degrees, 48-minutes North,
81-degrees, 31-minutes West. The FAA is accepting comments on the
notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) until April 12, 2004.

"The FAA and, more importantly, the Department of Defense need
to hear from the people affected by this change - general aviation
pilots," said Boyer.

"AOPA urges pilots to file formal comments."

Pilots may file comments online dms.dot.gov by clicking on
"Simple Search" and entering docket number 15976.

Written comments should be mailed to: Docket Management System,
U.S. Department of Transportation, Room Plaza 401, 400 Seventh St.
SW, Washington D.C., 20590-0001. Make sure to include the full
docket identification (FAA-2003-15976/Airspace Docket No. 03-AWA-5)
at the beginning of written comments.

"Not long ago, I half-jokingly suggested we start calling these
post-9/11 TFRs over military bases 'PFRs,' or permanent flight
restrictions because they'd been around so long," said Boyer. "Now
the Pentagon is planning to turn that joke into reality."